3 Baker teens dead after Friday night shooting

AP Reporting

Police in Baker, La., say two teenage boys and a 15-year-old girl died after gunfire broke out at a birthday party at a privately owned club.

Baker Police Chief Mike Knaps said the girl died at the scene of the late Friday night shooting. Two boys, ages 15 and 18, died Saturday, Knapps said at an afternoon news conference. A 19-year-old male who was shot at the party was in stable condition with a non-life threatening wound.

The dead were identified as Marcell Franklin, 15, who died Friday night; Kendal Dorsey, 15, and Diontrey Claiborne, 18.

Knaps said his investigators, East Baton Rouge Parish authorities and state police worked throughout the night and interviewed about 30 witnesses, trying to piece together what happened.

The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge interviewed the 19-year-old, Javaughn Simmons, who said he did not recognize a person he saw shooting.

Knaps said the shooting was reported shortly after 11 p.m. Friday at a club rented for an invitation-only private birthday party featuring local rappers and DJs. More than 50 people attended.

Knaps said there were at least two private security guards at the event, along with some adult chaperones.

"They really needed the police department there, or the sheriff," Knaps said. "If you're going to have this sort of party for your children where it's posted on social media, you need to have strong security."

He later added, "If we had been working security detail, we would have had no less than four officers posted there in uniform."